


FONIC ☆ SPLIT

by supershadsy



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Multi, Multiplicity/Plurality, Polyamory, Slow Burn, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 01:05:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11817984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supershadsy/pseuds/supershadsy
Summary: Despite an accident seven years ago, Luke fon Fabre has been living a fairly normal life. Living with his adoptive father Jade Curtiss, he's about to enter his senior year of high school, with best friends and star students Guy Cecil and Natalia Lanvaldear at his side. But, something strange starts to happen--the nagging voice in the back of his brain, something that he always thought was himself, now has a name. A name, his own personality, and his own desires. At first, it's frightening. But as time goes on, Luke and Asch figure out how to coexist in the same mental space--with some strain, and some help along the way.…Oh, and figure out how teenage dating is going to work around that, too.☆"I act as one, but I'm not alone."★On hiatus indefinitely.





	1. Prologue: Seven Years Earlier

☆☆☆

_ Where am I? _

_ (…) _

_ Hello? Is there anyone…there? _

_ (…) _

_ …Who am I? _

He blinked his eyes open, adjusting to the sunlight filtering in through the small window. Around him were blank white walls, decorated with medical equipment--wires and dials, and switches as well. His own hand was covered in gauze and tape, and had a tube hooked up to it that led to a bag of liquid attached to a rolling metal stand.  _ Huh? How… _

As soon as he was able to think on his own, he realized a dull ache on the side of his cheek.  _ Ow…  _ He reached up with his left hand, as his right was marred by an IV, and found that part of his face was also covered in gauze and ached to touch.  _ What…happened to me?  _

_ (…) _

His head ducked down, and red bangs fell into his vision.  _ Am I…sad? But, why? I don’t know…I can’t remember… _

Before he could dwell on it too much, the door to his room opened, and he sat back up.  _ A nurse?  _ “You’re awake…!” she said, smiling gently. She pulled over a machine on wheels and carefully slipped a fabric sleeve around his small bicep, velcroing it shut. “I’ll let your guardian know in just a minute…”

He lifted his head up slowly and tilted it, staring at her with wide eyes. “G…guardian?” he said slowly.  _ Guardian? Shouldn’t it be my mom or dad? Or maybe…  _ His voice came out lower than he expected, and he cleared it with a cough before it settled into a more natural pitch. “Um…”

The sleeve on his arm filled with air as the machine rattled, taking his blood pressure. “It has been a couple days…” she muttered, mostly to herself, then knelt at the bedside. She squinted at his cheek, then peeled a bit of the gauze off to inspect it. “We’ll need to change these.”

He winced while the tape tugged on his skin, and revealed the wound he couldn’t see. “It hurts…” he remarked, reaching up to touch it.

“Ah, ah, don’t touch,” she instructed, pushing his hand down. “Burns are the worst. Hopefully the scarring won’t be so bad, since you’re still young…”

_ Burns? How did I get burned?  _ He shook his head, and his vision doubled out of focus. Vaguely, he sensed the same ache along his right side, the same as his cheek.  _ I’m really confused…and a little scared.  _ Tears brimmed from his eyes, and when they rolled down his cheeks, the salt in them rolling over the wound and stinging immensely. “O-ow…” His voice cracked and whimpered, and he began to sniffle. “I wanna go home…”

_ (…Home? Hah…) _

He ducked his head away to wipe his nose on the back of his hand, a laminated paper bracelet scraping against his chin. The nurse paused, then spoke quietly. “Honey, do you know where you are?” 

His weeping ceased, and his lips parted as he looked around. “A…hospital?” As he glanced over to the blood pressure machine, the sleeve nearly cutting off his circulation, he spotted the numbers for his heart rate pick up speed. “I…I don’t…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she soothed. “You’re in Akzeriuth Memorial hospital. You’ve been through quite a lot recently, and have been sleeping for a few days--”

“I…have?” His mouth became dry, but his coursing mind kept him still enough for the nurse to gently apply salve and gauze to his cheek.  _ I’m at the hospital, but I don’t know…how I got here. I don’t remember. I really…don’t. _

_ (You will. Maybe.) _

_ What? What’s that supposed to mean? How am I supposed to know anything if I can’t remember? Help… _

A long beep interrupted his thoughts, and the nurse unwrapped the velcro sleeve, coaxing him to look back at her. “Can you tell me your name?” she asked.

His eyes grew wide and unfocused.  _ My name. Right, my name. Everyone’s supposed to know their own name, right? I’m not a dummy-- _

_ (Luke.) _

The single word alone flooded relief in his chest.  _ Oh, yeah. Duh. I remember now. That’s me. _

_ (...) _

“Luke,” he said slowly. “Luke…fon Fabre.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey, hey! I'm back at it again! This time in the 21st century!
> 
> A little prologue to start. More notes next chapter!


	2. First Day

☆☆☆

At 6:30 AM, 17 year-old Luke heard his alarm go off, and immediately rolled over and slammed his hand on the snooze button. With a groan, he buried his head back in his pillow. _The worst thing about school is how early you have to get up,_ he thought. _I was having a dream too…_

_Something kind of normal, like I was walking through school, but no one recognized me, and even though there were people I “knew”, they all seemed…different._

_Weird._

In his drowsy haze, time was stretchy like taffy, so in an instant, his alarm went off again. And he slammed it again. _I wish summer would last forever._

_(I’m not a little kid anymore. I’m a senior in high school.)_

_Yeah, that’s true. Ugh, but Lorelei, I never have to get up this early for work…_

As he felt himself drifting back to sleep, hiding his face from the morning sun streaming through his window, he heard a knock on his door. “What?” Luke groaned.

“It’s quarter of 7,” a voice said, familiar and stern. “Are you getting up?”

 _Go away, Jade…_ “Five more minutes,” Luke grumbled into his pillow.

“Breakfast is going to be gone in five more minutes.”

He rolled over to his side and sniffed the air. _My room’s basically right next to the kitchen. If I were gonna smell anything…now_ that _would wake me up. But, if I know Jade, then…_ ”You made breakfast?” he asked.

“Gourmet cereal, just for you,” he chided through the door. “Buuuut, if you get up now, there’ll be time to make something before you have to leave.”

Luke immediately shut his eyes. _Screw you. He’s such a weird…dad, I guess. I mean, it’s been seven years, but_

_(it’s still odd to consider him “dad”.)_

Regrettably, the conversation stirred him just enough for the former comfortable drowsiness to dissipate, and he hugged at his blanket. _Jade’s just gonna be Jade. And that’s all right. I don’t remember Mom and Dad that much anymore anyway. It’s been awhile since the fire._

 _(But it’s_ only _been seven years.)_

_That’s such a long time, though. That’s like…forever. I was just a little kid. I barely remember anything from then, even after the amnesia went away…  
_

Luke rolled over to his back, pushing his bangs out of his face, skimming his cheek along the way. _Great, now my head’s buzzing and I’m awake._ He stared up at the ceiling, dotted with old glow-in-the-dark stars in varying shapes. _Senior year. I haven’t even thought about where to go to college. Even with Jade pestering me about making sure to get onto scholarships, look into my options, blah blah blah…_

His focus blurred.

_(I’m not going to get anywhere unless I start looking into it. Application deadlines are in…November or something, right?)_

_I…guess so._

Luke blinked hard. _I don’t remember where I heard that…_

As he stewed in his own thoughts, shuffling echoed from the kitchen, and his bedroom door suddenly burst open. However, it wasn’t Jade in the doorway. “Yo!” With blond hair, a dark summer tan, and a wink from green eyes, stood Guy Cecil, backpack over one shoulder. “Enter the amazing Guy!”

“Shit!” Luke exclaimed, jerking up beneath his sheets. His heart raced while Guy dropped his backpack.

“Language, Luke,” Jade called from the kitchen.

Guy snickered and strolled over to the bed. “You’re still in bed? Man, we’re gonna be late.” His gait was slow, but as soon as he reached the edge, he jumped onto it, barely missing Luke’s legs and bouncing him. “I knew it was a good idea to come get you--!”

“Okay, okay, I’m up!” Luke quickly ran a hand through his hair and pushed Guy away by a palm squarely on his chest. _Guy._ Even though his tone read as irritated, he smirked down into his lap while swinging his legs around off the bed. _Back to waking me up to go to band, right on schedule…_

Luke groaned and stretched with a yawn. “Your new haircut gives you wicked bedhead,” Guy remarked, amused.

“Huh?” He yanked off his pajama shirt and stumbled to his dresser to pull out a t-shirt. “It’s not even new anymore, I got it cut like two months ago.” _And it’s getting long again._ He huffed and kicked a pair of cargo shorts off the floor, up into his hand. “Dude, I’ll be just a sec…”

“‘Kay.” Guy flashed him another smirk before his eye caught a black case beside the door, and he grabbed it on his way out. “I got your trumpet.”

“Thanks.”

As he pulled on his shorts, he hopped over to the mirror next to his closet and got a closer look at himself. His red hair was already starting to graze his shoulders, the styling from it nearly gone, and as soon as he zipped up, he grabbed a brush off his dresser and tried to comb it into place.

_(Maybe I should grow it back out.)_

_No, I really liked it short. When it was first cut, anyway._ Luke styled his bangs, making eye contact with himself in the mirror. His jade-green eyes (or were they more emerald? Luke himself could never quite tell) caught the morning light in the sun, shining brighter than usual. _I always liked my eyes,_ he thought, a little pride bubbling in his chest. _They’re cool. Pretty even._

He grabbed a white sweatshirt, also off the floor, and threw it over his shoulders. As he was straightening the hood and the collar, the sun from outside dipped behind the clouds,

and as he looked at himself, he felt something shift.

_(…)_

He paused. _Huh?_ His hands froze over the zipper, and he felt familiar anxiety in his gut as he continued to make eye contact with himself. It wasn’t anything he could quite describe, if anyone asked him to, but it was…just gently unsettling. It was like taking a dark road home--familiar, but not at the same time. Slowly, as the shadow passed over his eyes and face, he lifted a hand up and pushed his long, side swept bangs out of his face. For the first time in years, his gaze traced upon the side of his cheek, on the discoloration from a burn scar long ago. _What…_

_…it feels like someone’s watching me…_

“Luke!” Jade’s voice commanded out from the kitchen. “Guy’s eating your breakfast.”

And just like that, the feeling faded. His hand flinched away from his face, and he shook his bangs out of his eyes as they fell back, instinct fueling the motion. “Coming!” _That was weird._

_(…I’m sure it’s nothing.)_

_Yeah. It’s probably nothing._

With a sigh, he bounded out from his bedroom, and into the kitchen. Sure enough, at the kitchen table, Guy was just finishing up a bowl of cereal, while Jade’s face was illuminated by his laptop across from him.

Jade only flicked his gaze up over his glasses at Luke, expression neutral. “Are you all set for today?”

“Yeah,” Luke replied absently, watching Guy instead. “Dude, you really ate my breakfast?”

“It was getting soggy!” Guy insisted, pushing the bowl away. Even though he was laughing, there was a sheepish hint behind his smile. “Listen, I can--”

“It’s whatever,” Luke dismissed, walking over to the cupboard and grabbing a granola bar. “I don’t even like that kind.”

“What’s the matter, it has _some_ sugar in it,” Jade commented, clicking on his laptop. “Fiber is good for you.”

“Gross,” Luke retorted, sticking his tongue out. _Where’d I put my backpack again? Is it in my room still?_ The kitchen looped through to the living room, which looped into the hallway outside his bedroom, so he made a swift round throughout.

He found it right near his bedroom closet, half open with empty folders and pristine notebooks. _Good thing this was packed up ahead of time. Thanks, me._

_(You’re welcome.)_

Luke shook his head and zipped it up, peeling open his granola bar and shoving half of it into his mouth. “Hey, for real,” Guy called. “Oslo’s gonna freak unless we leave _now.”_

His reply was garbled with grains. “Okay, okay!” He shouldered his backpack, swiped his cell phone from his nightstand, and darted back out. Guy was up and holding his trumpet case, and he grabbed it from him, slamming against his hip in his hurry. Twirling around, he waved at Jade. “Okay, I’m leaving.”

“Have a good day,” Jade replied. For the first time that morning, he straightened up from his laptop, looking directly at Luke with dull red eyes. “Luke?”

“What?” he replied.

Jade smirked. “Love you.”

Luke wrinkled his nose. _Sap is unusual from him._ “Love you too, Jade.”

“See you!” Guy called, beckoning Luke behind him as he took the lead out the front door. “C’mon!”

Morning dew still lingered on the lawn as Luke and Guy jogged down the slope of the driveway, then began the trek around the idyllic Baticul suburbs. “We’re probably not gonna play today, right?” Luke asked.

“Nah, she’s gotta hand out all that stuff to the freshmen anyway,” Guy replied, waving his hand. He also had a black instrument case at his side, careful to carry it opposite Luke’s side. “I’m pumped you’re going to be in jazz this year.”

Luke smiled at the ground with a little sigh. “I wasn’t sure if I could even do the audition…”

“But you nailed it!”

“Yeah, 3rd trumpet…”

“Dude, that’s still important! Still counts.” Guy reached around and grabbed his shoulder, as clunky as it was with both of their backpacks on. “Makes me wonder what other shit I can rope you into before we graduate.”

“H-hey…” Luke felt his face grow warm. “Listen, if I did _half_ the shit you did, I wouldn’t be able to keep my grades up…”

“Sure you could,” Guy replied. “I could help you study. ‘Talia could, too, she’s got that down to a science.”

“Yeah, with all her flash cards and stuff…” _Right, I’ve barely seen Natalia all summer. Her family goes vacationing near Chesedonia pretty much the whole time. We all have our group chat going all the time, but…_

_(I kinda miss her.)_

_It’ll be good to see her soon._

Luke blinked, and they were suddenly right in front of the school. He let Guy lead them through the back parking lot, around the main building, to where a separate entrance to the East Baticul High band room was. _I spaced out…_

Guy yanked open the door, allowing Luke to enter first. “Well, if I can get you to come to my games, that’ll be good enough,” he said. “First one’s this Friday--”

 _“Already?”_ Luke marvelled, walking backwards into the band room. “Jeez, this is the first day of school--!”

“I’ve been doing preseason stuff at 7 AM for the past two weeks, man,” Guy said, all with the same side smirk. Then, he nodded behind him. “Watch your step.”

Luke whirled around. “Huh? Oh…”

Behind him, right in the first chair of the orchestra, sat Natalia Lanvaldear, every blonde hair on her head neat and in place, hazel and green eyes shining up at him with a gentle smile. “You almost knocked me out, there,” she remarked, then stood up. “How’ve you been, Luke?”

“G-great! Ah…” Luke forced himself to chuckle out of the sudden nervousness that assaulted his chest. _Why am I so nervous? 'Talia and I have been friends for forever. Same as Guy, pretty much…_ “Well, y’know--”

“Don’t let him fool you,” Guy interrupted, resting his hands on both of Luke’s shoulders and peering around him. “I had to peel him out of bed this morning.”

“G-Guy…!” Luke choked, feeling his face growing nearly as red as his hair.

Natalia only giggled with a shake of her head. “Some things never change,” she said, then stood up and gave him a quick hug. As she did so, Luke felt Guy retreat immediately. “Ready for senior year?”

Gingerly, Luke returned it with his one free hand. _Not really, actually._ “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess…”

_(Natalia…)_

There was a beat of silence as Luke and Natalia stared at each other. _Um…_

_(...)_

“Hey, hey, break it up, you two.”

Ms. Legretta Oslo was a tall woman to begin with, but wore heels and stood on a conduction podium to emphasize it further. Her white blonde hair was tied up in a tight ponytail, and she crossed her arms at the group with a steady, piercing gaze. “Get seated by section, we’re about to start.”

“Yup,” Guy replied, with a click of his tongue. “C’mon, Luke, back we go.”

As they weaved their way back through the rows of chairs, Luke caught sight of faces he knew, and many he didn’t. _Big freshman class this year, huh?_ A row before they reached their section, he was swatted in the back by a stray hand. “Ack!” he exclaimed, whirling around.

Anise Tatlin stuck her tongue out at him, with her spunky, poofy pigtails and dark, freckled face. “Hey!” she stage-whispered. “We’ve got Algebra II together!”

“We…do?” he said.

“Yeah, I remember!” She winked at him and kicked her feet beneath her seat--it was clear she could not touch the floor flat-footed. “And I’ve got all of Ion’s notes from last year, too.”

Ion themself sat beside her, and gave a sheepish wave. “Hey, Luke,” they said, tucking a lock of deep green hair behind their ear. “W-we’ll talk about it after…”

Luke nodded slowly. “Sure.”

He lifted his trumpet case to head level to get to the back row, only for Guy to take it from his hands. “Gotcha,” he muttered. “I’ll put these in the storage room.”

With that, Luke plopped in his seat, second to the end of the row, and immediately took out his phone from his back pocket. Oslo was already addressing the freshmen in the band, all of them wide-eyed with a lap full of papers. _Looks like first day’s going to be a study hall,_ Luke thought, keeping his phone right in his lap. _I can deal with that…_

The screen lit up, and he put in his passkey quickly before opening up the Discord app. _No new DM’s,_ he thought, flicking through the different channels. He opened one up toward the bottom, and the one new message was from “MysticMelody”--a picture of a handsome, black and white cat far too close to the camera. _“ >>Mieu says hello!” _ He smirked to himself. _Cute cat…_

Guy jumped into the seat next to him, settling in. “Testing your luck, huh?” he whispered, close in his ear. Luke felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “You want your phone taken away first thing?”

Luke scrunched his face and tabbed over to his text messages, pulling up Guy’s contact immediately. _“ >>Shhhh!” _ he typed in aggressively. _“ >>Don’t draw attention to us.” _

Guy rolled his eyes and sat back, but Luke still turned his phone’s screen off and stuck it in his sweatshirt pocket. _Guy’s right, I really don’t want my phone to get taken away first thing. Jade would definitely find out, and I’d be screwed. He’d probably ground my ass._

_(Yeah, like that time a couple summers ago. When I tried to sneak out and got caught.)_

_Right. House arrest friggin’ sucks._

_(And the last thing I want is to get that right at the beginning of the year)_

_when there’s so much to do. There’s Guy’s football games,_

_(and Natalia’s field hockey games,)_

_and homecoming and all kinds of other stuff. I’d probably die if all I could do is go to work and go right back home--_

A sheet of paper tapped his shoulder, interrupting his thoughts. “Huh?” Luke grunted, shaking his bangs out of his face.

“Spacecase,” Guy teased with a smirk. “Just some parts.”

“What? We’re playing today?” Luke said, making sure to grab a sheet that said “3rd TRUMPET” on the top and hastily handing to the side.

“No, dude, she just said…” Guy fluffed the back of his warm blond hair and shook his head. “You’re something…”

Luke stared down into his lap, brow furrowed. _Am I really that out of it? I do feel kind of…lost in my own head. Usually I’m so anxious for this that I’m pretty much hyper focused…maybe senioritis is setting in._

_(Look at your schedule. Make sure you know where you’re going.)_

The thought came as an odd command, but Luke obeyed it willingly, opening his bag at his feet and shifting through his papers to pull out a printed class schedule. _Good idea,_ he thought, scanning it and continuing to tune out Oslo talking in the background. _Let’s see…band on A days, jazz on B days…English 4, Algebra II, World History, a study hall, then…_ Luke wrinkled his nose. _Oh Lorelei, double period chemistry with Mr. Gneiss? Give me a break…_

Silently, Guy handed him another piece of sheet music, and Luke picked out his part and shuffled it together. “We’re going to be playing these on Wednesday, so make sure you look over them at least once,” Oslo said. “That way we can get a quicker jump on our performance pieces for Yulia City…”

An excited murmur rippled through the band room, and excitement tugged at Luke's chest. _Yulia City High School Music Festival. It’s one of the biggest festivals in Alderaunt. Our class didn’t go last year, but this time…I’m gonna be in both jazz_ and _the concert performances._

_(“C’mon, man,” Guy pleaded as they sat together on the couch. “Just do the audition for jazz. You’re better than you think you are.”_

_“I-I really don’t, I’m bad with auditions--”_

_Jade wandered into the living room. “I think it’d be a good idea,” he stated. “You don’t want to look back on this time in your life wishing you had done more. I think it’d be good for you to get more involved.”_

_“And you won’t do any sports,” Guy added, poking Luke’s stomach._

_“Ack--!” Luke squealed and fell back to the other side. “Well, okay, I…guess I will…”)_

He tucked the sheet music away in his backpack. _And they were right, of course. I am excited. And that’s another thing…_

Oslo had stepped down from the podium, and the room was devolving into chatter, allowing him to whip out his phone again. With Discord open, he opened his DMs and tapped on “MysticMelody”. _“ >>Hey you’re in yulia city right?” _ he typed, eyes dipping up and down from his phone. _“ >>Maybe we can meet up during the festival if ur around.” _

As soon as the message was sent, he tucked his phone back away and stood up, stretching. “Shoot,” he grunted with a yawn. “I’m still tired…”

“You can’t be tired now, you’ve got five more hours of syllabus shit to go through,” Guy said. Luke glanced at him out of the corner of his eye--crossed arms, gold polo shirt, and green eyes that twinkled with amusement to perfectly accompany the smirk on his lips. _Guy…we’ve been friends since 1st grade. Same with 'Talia. He was one of the first people I remembered right away after recovering from amnesia._

“I-I know,” Luke replied with a shrug, trying to be casual. _We’ve always been close._ “At least I have a study hall near the end of the day--”

“Really? What period?” Guy’s eyes widened, then he spotted Luke’s schedule poking out of the bottom of his bag. He snatched it and looked it over. “Dude, nice! 6th period, just like me. Right before lunch, too.”

“That’s good,” Luke said.

Natalia weaved through the chairs to approach them, brushing against Guy’s side. He flinched a little, but she was careful to give him space, shuffling next to Luke. “Sorry,” she apologized.

“No worries,” Guy insisted, although his voice sounded less casual. After a deep breath, he held his hand up. “I’m getting better with it, really. Here, up top.”

Natalia nudged her head forward, then grinned as she gave him a high five. “Yeah!” Guy exclaimed, and they both laughed. Luke couldn’t help but smile with them. _He doesn’t talk about it at all, but something really bad happened to him when we were all in middle school…_

_(“Oh Goddess,” Natalia said in awe, reaching out a small hand. “Guy, what happened to your face?” )_

_…and ever since then…_

_(As soon as her fingers grazed the bruise on his face, he flinched away, hugging his arms. “D-don’t!” he choked out, tears immediately in his eyes. “D-d-d…”)_

_…he doesn’t let girls touch him._

_(What happened?)_

_He told me once, but it was like a year later--_

Luke’s head began to swim, if only for a moment. _I should’ve asked Jade for some coffee. Who cares if it makes me jittery, I feel downright_ weird _today…_

“Luke?” Natalia asked, head cocked. “Everything okay? You look like you didn’t get enough sleep.”

“Hm? Oh, I’m fine,” he found himself replying. He also found himself using his right hand to run through his hair, pushing his bangs back all the way. “Totally fine.” He cleared his throat and looked between the two of them. “Guessing you guys have the same schedule…”

“Let’s see!” Natalia turned on one heel to face Guy, counting on her fingers, while Guy squared off with her as well. “Well, one thing’s different, since you have jazz on B days, and I have study hall.”

“Sure,” Guy said. “Keep going.”

“AP Calculus,” she listed.

“Yup.”

“AP Kimlascan History.”

“Check.”

Luke’s head bounced back and forth between them. _Yeah, that all sounds right. Valedictorian and…uh, whatever the name for 2nd highest GPA is--_

_(Salutatorian.)_

_That one,_ Luke concurred to himself. _They’re so smart…_

_(I was smart too, but then the accident happened, and…)_

_…Yeah. No more straight A’s. Not like that sorta thing matters when you’re in 5th grade._ He watched them chatter to each other, but didn’t quite take in what they were saying. _I just have a hard time studying, and remembering stuff too._

The bell rang above them, and the commotion around them picked up once again. “Well, that’s our cue,” Guy said, squatting to pick up his backpack. “Talia, I think we’ve gotta go to the other wing.”

“Yeah, we’d better get going.” She waved to Luke. “Later!”

“See you guys,” Luke said with a deep nod. Guy waved to him as well, and he watched them as they walked through to grab Natalia’s backpack, and they left together through the side entrance of the band room. _I’ll catch them in the halls,_ he thought, grabbing his own backpack. _And anyway--_

“Luuuuuke!” Anise’s shrill voice cut through everything as she bumped into his hip, holding out her schedule. “Let’s walk to class together!”

She pushed him forward, around the back row and up the stairs to a ramp that led out into the hallway. “Hey, _hey!”_ he exclaimed. “I can guaran _tee_ we do not have the same class.”

“Oh, yeah?” She stayed close, but kept an eye out over her shoulder. “Ion, c’mon, hurry up!”

Ion looked winded even from the small burst of speed they showed trying to catch up to them. Their backpack looked like it was weighing down their small, frail shoulders. In an effort to allow them to catch up, Luke held Anise by the shoulder and planted his feet firm at the top of the ramp. “You’re a junior, you don’t have English 4,” Luke said.

She opened her mouth, then closed it. “Oh,” she replied. Anise paused for a moment, then shrugged. “Oh, well. We’re going this way, anyway!”

The instant that Ion was in reach, she grabbed their hand and yanked them along. “Aaa!” they exclaimed. “See you in chem…!”

They dashed down the hall together, until it looked like Ion forced Anise to stop, holding her firm at the end of the hallway. _Anise hardly goes anywhere without Ion,_ Luke thought. _Oh crap, I hope that means she doesn’t have chem with me, too. There’s only so much Anise I can take._

_(So much energy.)_

Luke sighed deeply, and paced down the familiar halls of East Baticul High. _My fourth and final year. Senior year._ The lockers, colored slate against the painted concrete walls, lined the halls even as he made a left down to a row of classroom doors. _My last year here._

_(Better make it count.)_

_That’s what everyone always says. I mean, it’s just school, right?_

_(Who knows where all of our friends are going to go, though.)_

_My friends._ Luke felt a rise in his chest. _I have…good friends. I’m glad, I’m happy._ He smiled down at the tile, feet memorizing the way toward his English class. _I can make it count. For sure._

With that, he looked up at the number above the door he stopped at to make sure it was correct, and entered just before the bell rang once again.

★★★

_(“Your friends”, huh? They’re my friends too. They were my friends first._

_…Don’t take that away from me. I’m back, and I’m not you._

_I’m me.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 8/17/17: A reader reminded me about Legretta's real name, so I've switched it up and made a compromise--now she's recognizable and has a last name!
> 
> Here's where the meat starts! I'm still brushing up on names for locations with my trusty map, so bear with me. (They're not…terribly important anyway.) This is going to be a special sort of ride--I'm bringing a lot of my personal experience to the table, especially regarding high school life and school band politics. The formatting choices I'm using will also become more clear as the story progresses. 
> 
> I've had this idea in the works since June of 2016(!), and I'm excited to finally take it to the stage. Hope you enjoy the ride!
> 
> Next time, we're gonna skip all that boring school stuff and catch up with Luke once he gets out for the day. Stay tuned!


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